DISTINGUISHED FROM TROPES.

DISTINCT from the brilliant family of Tropes, there are forms of phraseology which are figurative in their construction without the aid of METAPHOR, but commonly admitting it at the option of the Writer or Speaker.

An undue stress, we think, has sometimes been laid on this distinction. We are aware that the most striking contrast or comparison may be forcibly expressed in plain terms, clearly independent of Metaphor; nevertheless, the fluent Composer will prefer to array his Thought in its most pleasing dress. Some Writers have been at the pains of marking out the nice shades of difference in modes of expression by plain language. Some Writers have enumerated above twenty varieties, with their separate characteristics; but with all respect for their Authors' ingenuity, the majority seem to be rather fanciful than useful; and to lay a stress on them were a waste of time. The Student, doubtless, is aware that the plainest language can be converted into graphic Metaphor, and amplified and embellished at will.

We propose, in our illustrations, to avail ourselves freely of both; viz., with or without the Metaphor, as may appear desirable.

THE APOSTROPHE.

This, by a sudden appeal, and mostly the result of strong emotion, interrupts the ordinary current of a discourse, and often addresses an absent Party, living or dead, making it the more impressive. In this vein, the Generals of old, in haranguing their armies, were wont to invoke the Shades of their departed Heroes, in order to quicken and animate their soldiers. But the Figure is equally available for other and the gentlest purposes; and probably Venus has been more frequently apostrophized by the Poets than Mars.

By artfully employing this Figure, while addressing a third party, the speaker is enabled to give free utterance to his sentiments, and thus to admonish and rebuke without giving personal offence.

Cicero, speaking in behalf of Pompey, thus breaks forth:"I call upon you, 'mute Regions;' you, 'most distant Countries;' you, Seas, Harbours, and Shores;—for what coast, what land, what place is there, in which the lively traces of his courage, humanity, greatness, and wisdom, are not extant ?"

This Figure may be used to applaud or condemn; to kindle admiration or indignation. It is mostly pathetic, and appeals to our kindlier feelings, so as to quicken our sympathies; but it also condemns in the strongest terms.

Its force is seen in the lines of Dr. Watts, on the celebrated John Howe:

Howe is a great but single Name;
Amidst the Crowd he stands alone;

Stands yet, but with his starry pinions on,
Drest for the flight, and ready to be gone.

ETERNAL GOD! command his stay;

Stretch the dear months of his delay.

O we could wish his age were one immortal day.
But when the flaming chariots come,

And shining Guards to attend thy Prophet home,
Amidst a thousand weeping eyes,

Send an Elisha down, a Soul of equal size;

Or burn this worthless Globe, and take us to the Skies.

YOUNG, in his "Night Thoughts," thus exclaims :

O lost to Virtue! lost to manly Thought!
Lost to the noble sallies of the Soul!

Who think it solitude to be alone!

Our REASON, GUARDIAN ANGEL, and OUR GOD,
Then nearest these when others most remote;
And ALL, ere long, shall be remote but THESE.

* He was still living.

:-

FALCONBRIDGE thus counsels KING JOHN, endeavouring to quicken his craven Spirit with a spark of his own heroism Let not the World see Fear and pale Distrust Govern the motion of a kingly eye!

Be great in act, as you have been in word!

BISHOP HEBER thus apostrophizes his deceased Friend:-
Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee,
Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb;
The SAVIOUR hath pass'd through its portals before thee,
And the lamp of His love was thy guide through the gloom.
Thou art gone to the grave-we no longer behold thee,
Nor tread the rough path of the World by thy side;
But the wide arms of Mercy are spread to enfold thee,
And sinners may hope, since the Saviour has died.

In Holy Writ it is often deeply pathetic, as in David's lament over Absalom :

66

The king covered his face, and cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

More pathetic, as far more dignified, is the lament of our blessed Redeemer over the guilty City that rejected Him :--

66

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

In Sacred Writ, the whole Creation, all things animate and inanimate, are apostrophized. Not only, "O Lucifer, Son of the Morning! how art thou fallen from heaven!" but, "Praise THE LORD from the Earth, ye dragons, beasts, and all cattle, and creeping things, and flying fowl."

Thus, in the magnificent exordium to Isaiah's Prophecy, "Hear, O Heavens! and give ear, O Earth! for THE LORD hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up CHILDREN, and they have REBELLED AGAINST ME.”

Also, the Prophet Micah, vi. 1-3, "Arise! contend thou before the Mountains, and let the Hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, O Mountains, THE LORD's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the Earth! for THE LORD hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel. O my people, wherein have I wearied thee? testify against Me."

ANTITHESIS,

or CONTRAST, by some writers termed ENANTIOSIS, or opposition, is the reverse of comparison or analogy. It also enables us to express our meaning more graphically by drawing a forcible distinction between the real nature of things and their fancied properties.

By this Figure we say,

VIRTUE is the Parent of GooD, but Vice is the plague or our Race.

WISDOM excelleth FOLLY, as far as Light excelleth Darkness. And with Young,

ANGELS are MEN in lighter habit clad;

And Men are Angels loaded for an hour.

Or with POPE,

Man, like the generous Vine, supported lives;
The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.

And again,

Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never Air or Ocean felt the Wind;
That never Passion discomposed the Mind:
But all subsists by elemental strife,

And Passions are the elements of Life.

The same Poet has beautifully illustrated this Figure, in the following lines,—

Has GOD, O Man, wrought solely for thy good,

Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?

Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
For him as kindly spreads the flowery lawn.
Is it for thee the Lark ascends and sings?
Joy tunes his voice, Joy elevates his wings;
Is it for thee the Linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own, and raptures swell the note!
The generous Steed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his Lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?

Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer.
Know, Nature's children all divide her care;
The fur that warms a Monarch, warmed a bear.

Contradictory notions of HAPPINESS he thus depicts :

Ask of the Learned the way; the Learned are blind;
This bids to serve, and that to shun Mankind.
Some place the Bliss in Action; some in Ease;
Those call it Pleasure, and Contentment these.
Some, sunk to beasts, find Pleasure end in Pain;
Some, swelled to Gods, confess e'en Virtue vain;
Or, indolent, to each extreme they fall
To trust in every thing, or doubt of all.
Who thus define it, say they more or less

Than this ?-that Happiness is Happiness!

Also in the following lines from YOUNG's "Night Thoughts,"

How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful is Man!
How passing wonder HE who made him such!

Who centred in our make such strange extremes !
From different Natures marvellously mixed,
Connection exquisite of distant Worlds!
Distinguished Link in Being's endless chain,
Midway from nothing to the DEITY!